Pinoy architects design easy-to-build emergency quarantine facility for COVID-19 patients

Architects have designed an emergency quarantine facility to help hospitals accommodate more coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.

With some hospitals in Metro Manila already at full capacity, more facilities are needed as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continues to increase.

To address this, Architect William Ti and his friends from the industry created a design for an affordable and easy to build facility which can house persons under investigation (PUIs).

"This is mainly to augment the capacities of the hospitals, as they become unable to accept more patients," Ti said. "It prevents people who are under quarantine from being forced to go home and infect their families and friends."

READ: Makati converts hotel into isolation facility for COVID-19 PUIs

The design, which can be used by free of charge, is a horizontal structure with a wooden frame wrapped in a protective plastic skin.

It can accommodate 15 beds, a testing box, sanitation and disinfection areas, and a nurse’s lounge.

Some of these facilities are already being constructed on the grounds of the Manila Navy Hospital and Army General Hospital, among other areas.

"Almost all the cost is shouldered by the construction industry," said Ti, principal architect of WTA Architecture and Design Studio.

His office sponsors the manpower while companies such as Matimco, Consolidated Wood, Uratex, Kuysen, among many others, sponsor the materials.

READ: QC hotel tapped as quarantine facility for COVID-19 PUIs, to house frontliners

The building can be constructed in a short period of time with easily available materials, and the total cost clocks in at just under P300,000 for each facility.

The architect encourages any agency, private or otherwise, to use the design for the construction for their own quarantine facilities.

"We’ve made the designs open source and put them up online, so everyone can have access to them," says Ti. "It is our fervent hope that more groups would take up the designs and do with them as they please so we can build more facilities faster."

To access architect William Ti’s complete set of working drawings for the Emergency Quarantine Facility for open source use, click on this link.

--MGP, GMA News